


the innocent

by ayebydan



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Black Family Values, Gen, Metamorphmagus, Post-Canon, Werewolves, parceltongue
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:27:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27356494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ayebydan/pseuds/ayebydan
Summary: Molly collects those who have no home after the war. Harry. Lavender. Pansy. Andromeda and little Teddy. They make their own family.No one expects the wards to be triggered by a stranger.No one expects that stranger to be Draco Malfoy with information about a child born to Bellatrix Lestrange and Lord Voldemort.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 17





	the innocent

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this knocking around for ages. I honestly don't know where to go from here. I mean I have a plot in my head in regards to the baby and the rescue but very little else written. I'm honestly not sure if I will continue. So I thought I'd share it anyway. If anyone has thoughts I'd love them. If nothing else it means I've not just lost over a thousand words to the ether I guess.

1;

Since the war ended Molly has made it her personal business to make sure that her family meet once a week. 'Family' has come to include Andromeda, young Teddy, Harry, Hermione, Luna and anyone else she feels has been left out, cast aside or looked over. Orphaned witches like Lavender Brown and Pansy Parkinson are additions Harry Potter never expected to see and yet can now not imagine his dinners without either of them. Lavender's smile never pulls fully across her face anymore but her eyes blaze when she has Teddy babbling in her arms and Pansy has burst out of her shell with the coaching of the Weasleys. A child soldier now allowed to find herself at Molly's hearth. 

Harry sees a lot of himself in her. Or he sees who they both used to be. Life after the war is odd. Perhaps that is why they are all so defensive when something threatens it and so bound together by that fact.

Arthur is laughing at something Percy says when he tenses and his face goes slack, "The wards."

Everyone immediately goes silent and Molly slams a lid over her pot of stew as dinner is yet to be served, "Should Percy and George go with you? Bill isn't here. I can floo him if-"

"No, I will go myself. Stay alert though."

"Mr Weasley I-"

"I need you here to protect the family, Harry. Please," Arthur states mildly before slipping out of the back door. 

"Mrs Weasley I-"

Molly makes her way around the dinner table and shoves Harry back down into his chair between Ron and Ginny, "I am getting tired of reminding you that my name is Molly for a start. We all fought, Harry. We are all targets. Now, if you would not mind spacing out those glasses correctly so I can put my dishes down."

Harry follows the instructions but he cannot ignore the way that Lavender is tensed, her heightened senses on full alert. Pansy notes it too and gets to her feet, 

"I will help, Harry. He's useless at spacing. He never gives anyone enough elbow room," says Pansy softly before getting to her feet and circling the table and spacing out the glasses as she goes.

As soon as she is close Harry raises an eyebrow, "I'll stay close to the door. Hermione has the middle of the room. You have Molly by the stove though? She...well, I don't think she wants to do another Lestrange moment you know?"

"Got it."

Several tense moments unfold as they all sit and pour water and wine amongst the adults. Andromeda bounces her grandson on her knees for a few tense minutes before shuffling him along a line of redheads who say nothing until he is sat on Harry's lap. The safest in the room. Pansy hisses through her teeth and gestures until Ron swaps seats with Lavender who nods.

"Should one of us go out?" George snaps eventually. 

"Dad said-"

"I don't like this, Perce," quietly comes from Percy's own fiancé Audrey, "Someone should check on Arthur."

"No," Molly states firmly. "That is not how the wards work. Arthur left them to check. If there is a problem we are safest inside the house itself."

"So dad is unprotected out there?" Ron cries in outrage.

"We are aware of how they work, Ronald and we accept what that means for our family. What it has _always_ meant. So if you don't mind, drink your wine and chat amongst yourselves. I will check on pudding."

They chat. They battle plan. They weigh up the pros and cons of trying to leave or if that in itself is a trap. Everyone has white knuckles as they hold their wands after hearing the soft squelching sound associated with approaching _The Burrow's_ back door.

The door opens with a creak and a flat hand down from Arthur who smiles and then looks to Percy as his oldest present child. "You will want to make sure it is me with this. Go ahead."

An exchange many of the others around the table don't understand unfolds but Harry, Pansy and Hermione's wands are still firmly gripped as Lavender sits high in her chair as if ready to explode out of it and throw her physical strength into a battle if needed. She sits beside Harry and in front of Teddy. 

"Right, well. Come inside, Draco. And share your story. Molly, can we grab another chair and place setting and such?"

After that, no one hears anyone specifically for several moments over the protests until Teddy begins to cry and his accidental magic begins to cause every glass in the room to shake whether it is filled or not. 

“I think that is quite enough. Sit down, nephew.”

And, well, no one at the table is willing to cross Andromeda Tonks.

2; 

Teddy shows no signs of calming down and that causes Molly and Andromeda to rally the group into silence as Arthur blushes deeply and notes he has possession of Draco's wand. The blond in question stands quickly in the closed doorway and steadily meets each person's eyes as if trying to convey he is not a threat. His light blue robes help the aesthetic but some are more trustworthy than others.

But then many of those at the table went to school with him and that is what counts most in the end. 

"Lowered yourself to visiting the home of the Weaselette have we? Something is certainly afoot. Plus, Bill is no slouch. The only Death Eaters who could have taken down our wards are where they belong. Six feet under. So given they didn't blow _you_ to Mars....I'd like to get on with my dinner."

Ron gives Ginny a swift nod and summons the soup pot himself after that. He doesn't even comment as Draco tentatively takes a seat or when he is served a bowl of the hot soup in question. It does not mean he gives him one of the many spare rolls available right enough.

They do things the Weasley way. They are fed and full and whomever they find suspect is left to sweat it out. Only after the final pudding bowls are cleared and Teddy is occupied with a silenced wooden spoon and pot to bang together on the floor does Arthur turn to Draco and gesture for him to speak. In full Malfoy fashion he is dramatic and once he starts he does not stop.

Meeting the eyes of Andromeda Tonks he takes a moment and beings. "My Aunt Bellatrix...she gave birth to a daughter not long before the final battle. I did not even know she was pregnant. Neither did mother. Well as...as far as I can tell neither did mother. You never knew who to trust then, still don't know. We, mother and I, pieced it together from some of the letters Bellatrix left before she died. Not that many of them made sense. Bellatrix was firmly off her rocker as I am sure you are all aware."

"So? What has this got to do with us?" snaps Ron, arms folded stiffly over his chest as he glowers at his old rival across the Weasley's dinner table. “You’re not fobbing the kid off on Andromeda if that is what you are thinking! She has enough to deal with!”

"Ron! He is clearly getting there!" Hermione snaps, gesturing for Draco to continue. Everything is still overly tense now that Draco Malfoy has broken bread and eaten a meal with the Weasley family and they now sit with various alcoholic drinks. 

"Thanks Granger. I mean, Hermione," Draco mumbles, looking more downtrodden by the second. Pansy scowls and shoves his glass of wine towards him so he might take a drink before he carries on. None of the Gryffindors present can read their look but it ends in an eye roll and for some weird reason, they trust Pansy now. So if she is happy, well, they are more settled at least.

"There is no need to beat around the bush. The kid is The Dark Lord's daughter. Voldemort's. Absolutely not her husband's. He was not even in the country at the time when she would have, could have - well, I mean...."

"Conceived a child, dear?" Molly breaks in gently and Draco nods blushing scarlet as George glowers down the table at his mother. Clearly, he does not appreciate gentle words and comfort being given towards the Malfoy Heir.

"The letters say she was making hissing sounds as often as she was...doing what babies do. I can't say that I am an expert on their sounds. Frankly, we don't know how to find her or what to do about it. You seemed the logical person to come and talk to."

This time he is looking directly at Harry who has been watching Teddy while drumming his wand on his thigh. "Me? You want me to find this kid. Your cousin. That kid's mother killed your other cousin. That is why this fella is at my feet. She also killed my godfather who was like a _father_ to me! Why should I care or do anything? You have not even said what you _want_!"

"Harry, take a moment and think," drawls Pansy from the other side of the table, "Think about what people will do to find Voldemort's daughter. Think about what they will do _to_ her. _With_ her. If what Draco says is true...then all she is now is a baby who speaks parceltongue. I, personally, can't condemn her to whoever finds her first for that."

And that stops the room. 

“She’s right,” Andromeda murmurs after a few tense moments, “We have to find the child first.”

“Delphini. Her name. That is. Her name is Delphini.”


End file.
